An apparatus includes a transmitter portion which transmits a defined beam of eyesafe laser energy, a receiver portion which receives reflected energy from the beam, and a further portion which analyzes information in the received energy so as to detect the presence of a moving projectile.
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10. An apparatus comprising:
a gimbal that pivotally couples a housing to a post having an upper end and a lower end, the lower end being coupled to a weight;
a transmitter portion which transmits a defined beam of eyesafe laser energy through a window disposed on the upper end of the post, said beam having an azimuth angle of 360°;
a receiver portion which receives reflected energy from said beam onto a detector stored in the housing, the detector having a two-dimensional array of detector elements and, in response, forming a two-dimensional image representing a contiguous 360° azimuthal view on the detector; and
a further portion which analyzes information in said received energy by an electronic circuit contained in the housing so as to detect the presence of a moving projectile.
1. A method comprising:
pivotally coupling a housing to a post;
transmitting a defined beam of eyesafe laser energy by a window disposed on an upper end of the post, said beam having an azimuth angle of 360°;
receiving reflected energy from said beam onto a detector stored in the housing, the detector having a two-dimensional array of detector elements and, in response, forming a two-dimensional image representing a contiguous 360° azimuthal view on the detector;
analyzing information in said received energy by an electronic circuit contained in the housing so as to detect the presence of a moving projectile; and
tilting, using a weight disposed on a lower end of the post, the post relative to the housing such that angular movement of the housing allows the beam to remain in a generally horizontal orientation.
19. A method comprising:
pivotally coupling a housing to a post;
transmitting a defined beam of eyesafe laser energy by a window disposed on an upper end of the post, said beam having an azimuth angle of 360°;
receiving reflected energy from said beam onto a detector stored in the housing, the detector having a two-dimensional array of detector elements and, in response, forming a two-dimensional image representing a contiguous 360° azimuthal view on the detector;
detecting the presence of a moving projectile by detecting a Doppler shift in said received energy by an electronic circuit contained in the housing; and
tilting, using a weight disposed on a lower end of the post, the post relative to the housing such that angular movement of the housing allows the beam to remain in a generally horizontal orientation.
21. An apparatus comprising:
a gimbal that pivotally couples a housing to a post having an upper end and a lower end, the lower end being coupled to a weight;
a transmitter portion that transmits a defined beam of eyesafe laser energy through a window disposed on the upper end of the post, said beam having a beam azimuth angle;
a receiver portion that receives reflected energy from said beam onto a detector stored in the housing, the detector having a two-dimensional array of detector elements and, in response, forming a two-dimensional image representing a contiguous field of regard on the detector simultaneously throughout the field of regard; and
a further portion that analyzes information in said received energy by an electronic circuit contained in the housing so as to detect the presence of a moving projectile;
wherein the field of regard defines a contiguous azimuthal extent that is to be analyzed and wherein the beam azimuth angle is substantially equivalent to the field of regard.
20. A method comprising:
pivotally coupling a housing to a post;
transmitting a defined beam of eyesafe laser energy by a window disposed on an upper end of the post throughout a predetermined beam azimuth angle;
receiving reflected energy from said beam onto a detector in the housing, the detector having a two-dimensional array of detector elements and, in response, forming a two-dimensional image representing a contiguous field of regard on the detector;
analyzing information in said received energy by an electronic circuit contained in the housing simultaneously throughout the field of regard so as to detect the presence of a moving projectile; and
tilting, using a weight disposed on a lower end of the post, the post relative to the housing such that angular movement of the housing allows the beam to remain in a generally horizontal orientation;
wherein the field of regard defines a contiguous azimuthal extent that is to be analyzed for the presence of a moving projectile and wherein the beam azimuth angle is substantially equivalent to the field of regard.
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This invention relates in general to the detection of one or more moving projectiles and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus suitable for detecting one or more small projectiles, such as a bullet from a sniper rifle.
There are military and other applications in which it is desirable to be able to detect one or more moving projectiles. Systems have previously been developed to detect one or more large projectiles, such as an artillery shell. However, it is more difficult to detect smaller projectiles, such as a sniper's bullet. Although existing systems have been generally adequate for their intended purposes, they have not been satisfactory in all respects, and none of them have proved to be suitably accurate and efficient at detecting just a single shot from a sniper rifle. Further, some of these systems routinely generate false alarms in response to irrelevant flashes and/or reflections, while others routinely generate false alarms in response to irrelevant acoustic effects. Still others are highly directional, which is problematic in situations where it is difficult to identify the particular direction from which hostile fire is coming.
From the foregoing, it may be appreciated that a need has arisen for an improved method and apparatus for detecting an incoming projectile. One form of the present invention involves: transmitting a defined beam of eyesafe laser energy; receiving reflected energy from the beam; and analyzing information in the received energy so as to detect the presence of a moving projectile.
A better understanding of the present invention will be realized from the detailed description which follows, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
Although the system 10 of
An on/off switch 21 is provided on the housing 12, and is coupled to an electronic circuit disposed within the housing 12. The housing 12 also has a cover 22 which is held in place by four screws. The cover 22 can be removed in order to permit replacement of a not-illustrated battery which is located within the housing 12, and which powers the electronic circuit.
A global positioning system (GPS) antenna 24 is mounted on top of the housing 12, and is coupled to the electronic circuit within the housing 12. Using information in electromagnetic signals received from GPS satellites through the antenna 24, the system 10 can determine in a known manner its precise location on the surface of the earth, to an accuracy of a few feet.
A flexible electrical cable 26 has one end coupled to the electronic circuit within the housing 12, and has a connector 27 at its other end. The connector 27 can be used to couple the cable 27 to a display 28, or to some other type of electronic device. The display 28 is described in more detail later.
A cylindrical post 36 projects upwardly from the top of the housing 12, and also projects downwardly into the housing 12 through a not-illustrated opening in the top wall of the housing 12. The post 36 is pivotally supported with respect to the top wall of the housing 12 by a not-illustrated gimbal of a known type, and the gimbal is surrounded by a flexible bellows seal 37. A not-illustrated weight is secured to the lower end of the post 36 within the housing 12, and in the disclosed embodiment is the not-illustrated battery. Thus, when a person wearing the system 10 is walking or otherwise moving in a manner that causes movement of the housing 12, gravity will cause the post 36 to remain substantially vertical and stable at all times, despite the movement of the housing 12.
A cylindrical housing 51 is fixedly and concentrically mounted at the top of the post 36, and has a diameter larger than the diameter of the post 36. The lower portion of the housing 51 has a 360° window 52. A further cylindrical housing 56 is fixedly and concentrically mounted on top of the housing 51, and has a diameter smaller than the diameters of the post 36 and the housing 51. The housing 56 has a 360° window 57. The 360° windows 52 and 57 are each transmissive to radiation with a wavelength in a range corresponding to laser energy of a type commonly referred to as “eyesafe” laser energy.
As described in more detail later, the system 10 emits through the 360° window 57 a beam of eyesafe laser energy which simultaneously travels outwardly in all azimuth directions, as indicated diagrammatically in
After transmitting a beam of laser energy, the system 10 simultaneously looks in all directions for reflections of the transmitted laser energy, as indicated diagrammatically in
The beam 111 passes upwardly through a lens 116. The lens 116 cooperates with a not-illustrated lens disposed within the laser 110 so as to expand the laser beam. The expanded beam then travels to a beam splitter 117. Most of the energy of the beam 111 continues traveling upwardly through the beam splitter 117, as indicated at 120. However, a very small portion of the energy of the beam 111 is reflected by the beam splitter 117 in order to serve as a reference beam 119, which passes through a lens 118 to a further beam splitter 121. The reference beam 119 is reflected by the beam splitter 121, and passes through a lens 122 to a radiation detector 126.
The detector 126 is a device of a known type, which has a two-dimensional array of detector elements that can each detect radiation having a wavelength in a range of interest. Each of these detector elements produces a respective output signal, which is supplied to the electronic circuitry 127 of the system 10. The circuitry 127 also controls the laser 110.
Referring again to the beam splitter 117, and as mentioned above, most of the energy of the laser beam 111 passes upwardly through the beam splitter 117, as indicated at 120. This beam of energy 120 then passes upwardly through a lens 131, and is reflected by a mirror 132. It then passes through a lens 133 and travels to a beam splitter 136, where it is reflected upwardly as indicated at 137. The beam of energy 137 has its cross-sectional area approximately centered on the point of an approximately conical mirror or reflector 141. Thus, the energy of the beam 137 is reflected substantially uniformly in all directions, and passes through the window 57 with an azimuth angle of 360° and an elevational angle of approximately 10°. This is indicated diagrammatically at 61 in
The optical arrangement of
The optical arrangement of
The output of the preamplifier 216 is supplied to the input of a circuit 221, which carries out a fast Fourier transformation (FFT) calculation. This permits detection of the Doppler shift between the energy which was transmitted and the energy which was received from a particular direction. Where the system detects an appropriate Doppler shift, it will interpret this to mean that there is an incoming projectile from the respective direction monitored by the particular detector element 210. In this manner, the system 10 is able to detect the presence of an incoming projectile, as well as the particular direction from which it is coming. Although the circuit 221 in
As discussed above in association with
As discussed above, the laser 110 in the embodiment of
Yet another alternative approach is to use a transmitted beam with chirp modulation for range determination, and possibly with a second transmitted beam to serve as a Doppler-generating component. In order to provide both the beam for chirp modulation and the beam for Doppler-generation, it would be possible to use a simultaneous two-color laser transmitter with separate modulators for each wavelength. This approach can provide rapid identification of the direction to an incoming projectile, along with the range information which is needed for time of flight calculation. This approach involves some increased complexity over the single frequency modulation approach.
With respect to range detection, the performance of the system 10 will vary somewhat with the size of the projectile being detected. For example, a 50 caliber projectile can be detected to a range of at least 250 meters, a 7.62 mm projectile can be detected to a range of at least 200 meters, and a 5.56 mm projectile can be detected to a range of at least 175 meters.
When the system 10 detects an incoming projectile, the system 10 can determine the direction and range to the location of the origin of the projectile, such as a sniper, and can display this location on the screen 251, for example as indicated by the symbol “+” at 261 in
Although
The present invention provides a number of advantages. One such advantage is that the disclosed system can efficiently detect gunfire directed at friendly forces. In this regard, the system can efficiently and accurately detect a single small projectile such as a sniper bullet, which is much more difficult to detect than a large artillery shell. In order to provide a basis for selecting an appropriate countermeasure, the system can provide information such as the direction, speed and range of the projectile.
A further advantage is that the system provides continuous 360° coverage, and is relatively immune to irrelevant flashes and reflections, as well as irrelevant acoustic effects. Further, the system can efficiently detect a projectile in a manner which maximizes the amount of time available for countermeasures or defensive action.
Although one embodiment has been illustrated and described in detail, it will be recognized that substitutions and alterations are possible without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention, as defined by the following claims.
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